RESEARCH THEMES
Understanding the ecology of resilience depends on processes acting at multiple scales, often acting together to provide functional redundancy or buffering of species interactions. To do this, I use manipulative field experiments in conjunction with laboratory experiments targeting hypothesized physiological mechanisms that underlay community-level observations. Species interactions have been a particular focus of my work. As members of communities are differentially affected by environmental changes, species interaction strengths may change or disappear entirely as a result of species range shifts, altered phenologies, behaviors, or functions.
Diversity is not always visible to the naked eye. My research program focuses on algal-associated microorganismal communities, which play outsized roles in freshwater and coastal water quality and nutrient cycling and. Together with algae, microorganisms are integral to our understanding of human-environment linkages.
Ongoing climate changes present new challenges and opportunities for improving our understanding of environmental processes across spatial, temporal, and biological scales. Future responses of ecosystems will depend on the resilience or the vulnerability of their ecological communities, encompassing population and functional responses. In my research, I seek to understand the factors that contribute to resistance or resilience of ecosystems facing environmental changes.
